Hemwall Center for Orthopedic Regenerative Medicine

Excellent, excellent prolotherapy provider. I am an active 51 year old female (jogging, swimming, ballet, Pilates) and have developed some knee problems over the last five years or so: patellafemoral syndrome, meniscus tear and strange painful «plucking» sensation in the left, and miscellaneous minor tendon and ligament damage in both. By July 2013, I was starting to panic because my knees were getting noticeably worse and I was curtailing my activities because of it. Saw my good quality traditional Western sports doc; he sent me to physical therapy, which does help the patellafemoral syndrome, especially with a good therapist, but the meniscus tear, degenerated cartilage and snap crackle popping seemed well outside the realm of PT.
I had heard about prolotherapy, and the idea of it made sense to me. After researching LA-​area providers, decided to try Dr. Donna Alderman. WHAT a good doctor, and WHAT an amazing treatment. Dr. Alderman is one of the best, most knowledgeable, most genuine doctors I have ever known. She regularly travels to conferences where she lectures doctors on prolotherapy and trains new practitioners. The videos on her website do not accurately convey what a warm, caring person she is (probably nervous on camera). Her clean, attractive, well-​equipped office runs smoothly and her friendly nurse Michelle is as skilled at her job as Dr. Alderman is at hers.
So here’s what happens. Michelle draws the blood and then when the blood is ready, Dr. Donna comes in with the ultrasound machine. Fascinating to see with my own eyes the little rips and tears in my tendons, exactly where I had felt the crackling! She uses the ultrasound to guide her placement of the needles. It’s not nearly as painful as it sounds. Really. The drawing of the blood is the worst part. The needles are super thin and the pain only lasts a second or two, thanks to the Lytocaine which goes in first. OTOH, recovery afterwards was much worse than expected, especially the first time (ugh). I could hardly freaking move for 36 hours. My advice: do it on a Friday and plan to spend the entire weekend in bed, or at least all of Saturday. (Netflix and Vicodin! Kinda fun!)
I had my first PRP treatment in August 2013, beginning with the left. At this writing in March 2014, I have had six treatments on the left knee and three on the right. Both knees are MUCH better! The combination of PT and PRP worked quite well on the patellafemoral syndrome, and the injections have also addressed the snap crackle popping to a great degree. I don’t hear a crunching sound anymore when going up stairs. Even the painful plucking is almost gone. Last July I was getting 15 plucks a day, 4 or 5 of which were severe. Now I get maybe one pluck a week and it’s tiny. Just had sixth treatment on left knee yesterday and feel pretty certain that the plucks will soon be completely gone.
I cannot believe what a huge difference PRP has made to my knees. Yes, it’s expensive, but a lot less so than waiting another five miserable years (with reduced activity and corresponding weight gain) and then getting surgery. Worth every penny, IMHO. And Donna Alderman is a superb practitioner.

I’ve been dealing with back pain for about 2 months now. I’ve been to the chiropractor, physical therapist and had osteopathic manipulations but nothing brought me to 100%. I started to freak out a little (a little too much) because I thought I’d never get back to living an active lifestyle and would have to live with chronic pain for the rest of my life. My doctor finally told me about prolotherapy and referred me to Dr. Alderman. I was really hesitant at first since sticking needles in my back doesn’t sound fun and I read some horror stories online. I am so glad I did it because a few days after my treatment I am already feeling 40% better.
Dr. Alderman and her staff are all friendly, patient, and helpful. I can’t say I’m looking forward to my next visit but I’m so thankful for the hope I now have for a full recovery.
They have a lot of paperwork that you can fill out from home if you want to avoid coming half an hour earlier. They also have caller ID so don’t be surprised if they know who you are already when you call. You may end up waiting a bit so plan accordingly. She has copies of her book, magazines, and testimonials you can look at to pass the time.

Dr. Alderman is amazing. The sort of treatment that she does is very specialized and very hard to find unless you go to Europe (Kobe Bryant did), but she is truly an expert in the field of PRP having learned from those who invented it. Interested in going into medicine now myself, physiologically, PRP’s mechanism of repairing injury and joints makes complete sense, yet it is so simple. So glad I found Dr. Alderman